This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: Guardian
Jun 26, 2007
Baruch Kimmerling, who has died aged 67, was probably the first Israeli academic to analyse Zionism in settler- immigrant, colonialist terms. He described his homeland as being "built on the ruins of another society". A devoted atheist, he lamented Jews' and Arabs' failure to "separate religion from nationality".
Though associated with the "new historians" who question the official narrative of Israel's creation, Kimmerling was a sociologist by training. In h
Source: The Age
Jun 26, 2007
HISTORIAN Geoffrey Blainey will sit on a panel of commentators who will work out the best way to teach Australian history to year 9 and 10 students.
Professor Blainey — the conservative heavyweight who in 1993 coined the phrase "black armband view of history" to describe the portrayal of European colonisation as shameful — will be joined by Sydney Institute director Gerard Henderson, NSW Board of Studies inspector Jennifer Lawless and Australian National University senior
Source: http://www.marionstar.com
Jun 26, 2007
MARION - When it comes to President Warren G. Harding's achievements compared to other presidents, a British scholar is asking other historians to cut the Marion native some slack.
Niall Palmer, who wrote "The New Hampshire Primary and the American Electoral Process" and "The Twenties in America: Politics and History" said he finds Harding interesting because of how more attention has been paid to his personal life rather than his politics.
"The
Source: HNN Staff
Jun 26, 2007
In his NYT review of My Way, the new biography of Hillary Clinton by Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr., historian Robert Dallek concluded that the book offers an unsatisfying portrait of the former first lady and would-be president.
Now the authors have taken their revenge. Van Natta told an interviewer that Dallek "is a biographer of dead presidents. We did an investigative biography of someone running for president."
Dallek is the author of books on JFK, L
Source: Kyodo News
Jun 25, 2007
When it comes to the debate about World War II "comfort women," Australia has "chosen to ignore" evidence of Japanese military brothels that housed up to 3,000 Japanese and Korean women in the town of Rabaul on the island of New Guinea, an Australian historian claims.
Instead of highlighting the abuses suffered by women in Rabaul, located in what was then mandated Australian territory, Australia's politicians and its media have focused on Jan Ruff O'Hearne, a Dut
Source: Letter to the editor of the NYT Book Review by Dan Simon.
Jun 24, 2007
[Simon is the publisher of Seven Stories Press. ]
In his review of Howard Zinn's "Young People's History of the United States" (June 17), Walter Kirn misses the point. It isn't just that behind our socalled great leaders are often corporate business interests and other such uninspiring truths of history, but also that there is another unheralded force at work, one that indeed is very inspiring — the history of popular movements and of everyday people doing extraordinary t
Source: PRNewswire
Jun 24, 2007
Congressman John Lewis and Dr. James M. McPherson have been named the 2007 recipients of Ford's Theatre Lincoln Medals. Ford's Theatre Lincoln Medals were bestowed on Congressman Lewis and Dr. McPherson by Nicholas D. Chabraja, Vice Chair of the Ford's Theatre Society Board of Trustees and one of the 2005 winners, at the Ford's Theatre annual benefit gala held on Sunday, June 24, 2007.
Given by Ford's Theatre, the site of one of the most significant events in American history, the F
Source: Richard Evans in the NYT Book Review
Jun 24, 2007
In 1997, Saul Friedlander published “The Years of Persecution, 1933-1939,” the first of his projected two-volume history of “Nazi Germany and the Jews.” In the introduction to that volume, he announced his intention of “establishing a historical account of the Holocaust in which the policies of the perpetrators, the attitudes of surrounding society and the world of the victims could be addressed within an integrated framework.” Such a framework has indeed been missing from most historical accoun
Source: NYT Mag
Jun 24, 2007
The stones at Machu Picchu seem almost alive. They may be alive, if you credit the religious beliefs of the ruler Pachacuti Yupanqui, whose subjects in the early 15th century constructed the granite Inca complex, high above a curling river and nestled among jagged green peaks. To honor the spirits that take form as mountains, the Inca stoneworkers carved rock outcrops to replicate their shapes. Doorways and windows of sublimely precise masonry frame exquisite views. But this extraordinary marria
Source: http://www.southbendtribune.com
Jun 21, 2007
Mark A. Noll, a man many Americans may never have heard of, reclines in his office chair dressed in jeans and a polo shirt. A soft-spoken man and now a professor of history at the University of Notre Dame, he was named one of the top 25 most influential evangelicals in America by Time magazine in 2005.
Unlike the late Jerry Falwell, known for his booming personality and media savvy, Noll has achieved recognition within the evangelical community and beyond through his powerful schola
Source: Mercury News
Jun 21, 2007
The 26-year-old UC Berkeley graduate student who was driving the car involved in a crash that killed award-winning journalist David Halberstam last April faces misdemeanor criminal charges in the accident, the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office announced today.
San Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said Kevin Jones will be charged with vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence. He faces up to a year in the county jail and a fine of up to $1,0
Source: Press Release--Library of Congress
Jun 20, 2007
Crawford Young, a distinguished scholar on Africa and professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin, will discuss "The African Colonial State and the Encounter with Decolonization" at the Library of Congress on July 25.
The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will start at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, July 25, in Room 119 of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First Street S.E., Washington, D.C.
The event is sponsored by the Library of Congress John W. Kl
Source: Straits Times
Jun 20, 2007
RELIGIOUS extremists who preach terror and violence are pushing a distorted version of their religion, said renowned historian Karen Armstrong.
'There is a lot of bad religion about,' she said, noting that Buddhists used the term 'unskilled religion'.
'Terrorism, in my view, is not inspired by religion. It's a form of religiously articulated nationalism,' she said.
She was delivering this year's Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis) lecture to some
Source: Mary L. Dudziak at her blog, Legal History (Click on SOURCE for embedded links.)
Jun 19, 2007
"Reading the Founders’ Minds" is the title of a review by Gordon S. Wood in the June 28 issue of the New York Review of Books. The review takes up important questions of historical method, and also a critical question about the vision at the nation’s founding. Because of the importance of this review, and also because of the sharpness of the criticism of the reviewed books, I’ve invited the authors of the reviewed books to provide commentary on the Legal History Blog, and I have invite
Source: Chronicle for Higher Ed
Jun 18, 2007
Add to the list of academics criticizing DePaul University’s decision to deny tenure to Norman Finkelstein Mark A. LeVine, who posts his blog on the History News Network.
“I am especially offended at this immoral and utterly politically motivated action, which goes against the principles of intellectual honesty, courage, and integrity that I was taught were the foundations of a proper Catholic education,” LeVine says. “It is certainly a shameful stain, and a mark of cowardice, parti
Source: Gil Troy writing at the website of http://www.newsobserver.com
Jun 17, 2007
Poor Patrice Higonnet. The Parisian-born historian has a great life. He loves being Robert Walton Goelet Professor of French History at Harvard University. He is charmed by his Harvard students, as he admits in "Graduation Day," the lovely, elegiac preface to "Attendant Cruelties: Nation and Nationalism in American History."
But he cannot reconcile the colorful all-American palette of fresh-faced idealists he encounters in Harvard Yard with the dark hues of Geor
Source: Kansas City Star
Jun 16, 2007
David McCullough spoke Wednesday in Independence to help observe the Truman Library’s 50th anniversary.
McCullough’s biographies of Harry Truman and John Adams have won Pulitzer Prizes. His years introducing “American Experience” on public television, as well as his narration of the landmark Ken Burns “The Civil War” documentary, have made him perhaps the county’s most recognizable historian.
About 400 people attended his speech Wednesday, which he delivered on the libr
Source: BBC News
Jun 16, 2007
Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History at Cambridge, Prof Christopher Alan Bayly, researches and writes extensively about the Far East.
He revealed in a recent book that at the end of World War II more than 80,000 Japanese were kept in captivity.
The historian claimed they were used as cheap labour on projects across Asia and were not repatriated until 1948.
The professor, who also writes about the British Empire and the growth of Europe
Source: BBC News
Jun 16, 2007
Kendal-born broadcaster and historian Dr David Starkey is among Cumbrians named in the Queen's birthday honours.
Dr Starkey - once Britain's highest paid TV presenter - becomes a CBE for services to history.
Also honoured are Westmoreland Cardiac Support Society co-founder Gillian Impey, who becomes an MBE.
Sellafield managing director Barry Snelson and Cumbria Police deputy chief constable Christine Twigg are also among those recognised.
Mr Snel
Source: Tom Plate in the Seattle Times
Jun 14, 2007
LOS ANGELES — America needs more people like Prof. Jeffrey Wasserstrom, a heretofore humble academic here on the West Coast. Let me explain.
Understanding China is going to remain irritatingly difficult. It's an obviously important but intensely problematic place, with a possibly fabulous or possibly tragic future. We maybe have a better shot figuring out the future of India, or even Mars.
If we leave the job of thinking about China to our general mass news media, we wi
